The Black Dwarf

(Tales
of My Landlord, First Series)

First Edition, First Impression:

Tales of My Landlord. Collected and Arranged
by Jedediah Cleishbotham, Schoolmaster and Parish-clerk of Gandercleugh.
In Four Volumes. Vol. I (II-IV). Edinburgh: Printed for William
Blackwood, Prince's Street: and John Murray, Albemarle Street,
London, 1816.

Tales
of My Landlord

Having completed the trilogy consisting of Waverley, Guy
Mannering, and TheAntiquary, Scott
tried another experiment on the reading public by adopting
a fresh nom de plume for his next narrative project,
the Tales of My Landlord. In the advertisement
placed at the head of The Antiquary, the 'Author
of Waverley' had announced that he was taking
'respectful leave' of the public 'as one who is not likely
again to solicit their favour'. Within months, however,
Scott had reappeared in the guise of Jedediah Cleishbotham,
schoolmaster and parish-clerk of the fictional town of
Gandercleuch. Cleishbotham purported to be editing or working
up stories originally sketched by a younger colleague,
the late Peter Pattieson. These, in turn, were supposed
to be based on tales told to Pattieson by the landlord
of the local Wallace Inn, hence Tales of My Landlord.
As the tales were to be published not by Archibald Constable
but by his rivals William Blackwood (Edinburgh) and John
Murray (London), Scott hoped that the public would believe
a new writer had appeared to challenge his own supremacy
in the field of fiction.

The contract to write Tales of My Landlord was
signed in 1816. Negotiations were conducted between William Blackwood
and James Ballantyne,
Scott's printer and partner. James's brother John usually acted
as Scott's literary agent but he was distrusted by both Blackwood
and Murray. Despite all efforts to preserve Scott's anonymity,
both publishers were certain that they were dealing with the 'Author
of Waverley' and scarcely less sure that the author was Scott.

The Tales of My Landlord were originally
intended to comprise four volumes, each containing a separate story
set in a different region of Scotland: the Borders, the (south-)west,
the Highlands, and Fife. Only the first two, The Black Dwarf and Old
Mortality, were completed, the latter over-running its
designated length to fill three of the four volumes. The idea of
tying the tales together through the narrative voice of the pedantic
schoolmaster Cleishbotham may well have occurred to Scott during
the negotiations for the Tales in April 1816, when his
antiquarian friend Joseph Train told him of his plan to compile
a History of Galloway. This involved circulating a questionnaire
among the parish clerks and schoolmasters of Galloway. One response
which Train showed to Scott was humorously signed 'Clashbottom'.

Composition

The first volume of the Tales of My Landlord, The
Black Dwarf, is set in the Liddesdale hills, an area which
Scott knew intimately from the time he had spent hunting ballads
for his Minstrelsy of
the Scottish Border. The plot itself draws on a number
of Border Ballads. The adventures of Hobbie Elliot, the pillage
of Heughfott, appeal to the Black Dwarf for help, gathering of
forces, and the 'siege' of Westburnflat parallel events in the
ballads 'Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead' and 'The Fray of Support'.
The extensive knowledge of Border history and lore acquired while
compiling the Minstrelsy was further broadened by Scott's
work on The Border Antiquities of England and Scotland (1814-17).
The 'Black Dwarf' himself draws on Border folklore, in particular,
legends of the 'Brown Man of the Moors'. There was also, however,
as Scott himself acknowledged in the 'Magnum Opus' edition of The
Black Dwarf, a human model: the reclusive David Ritchie,
whose cottage Scott had visited while staying with his friend
Captain Adam Ferguson in Peeblesshire, 1797.

Scott may well have started writing The Black
Dwarf during his spring stay in Abbotsford, but progress
was considerably slower than his publishers had been led to expect.
Having been promised that the first volume would be in print
within a month of the contract being signed, Blackwood issued
an ultimatum on 31 July, forcing Scott to write and to release
copy at a much swifter rate. The volume was in print by the end
of August but pressure from his publishers may have led Scott
to conclude too hurriedly. Certainly, having read the first 192
pages with mounting excitement and assured John Murray (23 August
1816) of 'the splendid merit of the work', William Blackwood
felt that the finished article was marred by a weak ending. He
asked James Ballantyne (who shared some of his disappointment)
to forward to Scott suggestions for a revision which appear to
have originated with William Gifford, Murray's literary adviser.
Scott, incensed that Gifford had been consulted, refused to alter
a word. Privately, however, Scott acknowledged the force of Blackwood's
criticisms. He had begun the novel well, he wrote to Lady Louisa
Stuart, 'but tired of the ground I had trode so often before
I had walked over two thirds of the course. [...] So I quarrelled
with my story, & bungled up a conclusion as a boarding school
Miss finishes a task which she had commenced with great glee & accuracy'
(letter of 14 November 1816).

Having completed The Black Dwarf, Scott
turned to the 'tale of the West', Old
Mortality. As this tale took hold of Scott's imagination,
however, it expandedto fill the remaining three
volumes of the Tales of My Landlord. The original scheme
for the Tales was never carried out. Only The Black Dwarf was
completed in accordance with the original plan of setting four
tales in four separate regions. Complete in one volume, it remains
something of an anomaly in Scott's production. It was published
along with Old Mortality on December 2, 1816.

Synopsis

The Black Dwarf is set in the immediate aftermath of the Union
between England and Scotland in 1707. The political action is centred
on the first uprising to be attempted by Jacobites after the
Union, the aborted landing of the exiled James Francis Edward Stuart
and a large French fleet in March 1708.

The dwarf of the title is Sir Edward Mauley, who, in his youth,
has embraced the quarrel of his friend and kinsman Richard Vere,
killing his rival the Laird of Earnscliff. While imprisoned for
manslaughter, he learns that Vere has betrayed him by marrying
his intended bride. He retires in misanthropical disgust to Mucklestane
Moor, where his extraordinary strength, knowledge of medicine,
and ready wealth lead the local people to regard him as a supernatural
being in league with the Devil. Living incognito, he is known as
Elshender the Recluse. Vere lives nearby with his daughter Isabella
who has fallen in love with Earnscliff's son, Patrick. Vere opposes
the union, and, in order to further his Jacobite schemes, forces
Isabella to consent to marriage with Sir Frederick Langley. Isabella
appeals to Mauley for assistance. As Vere's expenditures have brought
his lands under Mauley's control, he is able to show Langley that
Isabella is penniless without his consent, and the marriage is
prevented at the last minute. The Jacobite plot is discovered,
and Vere and Langley flee the country. Revealing his true identity,
Mauley bestows his fortune upon Isabella who marries Patrick Earnscliff.
Mauley disappears and his ultimate fate remains a mystery.

Reception

For both critics and public, The Black Dwarf suffered by
comparison with its companion piece Old Mortality. The Critical
Review described it as a 'story possessing considerable capabilities'
but marred by 'the multiplication of characters'. The Monthly
Review felt that its interest lay only in the minor characters
and that the primary plot was dull. The only positive notices appeared
in the Scots Magazine and the British Review, for
which The Black Dwarf was 'conducted with singular art,
embracing much well sustained character and striking incident'.
One of the novel's harshest critics was Scott himself who reviewed
it anonymously in the Quarterly Review, lamenting that the
explanation of Mauley's conduct was 'too long delayed from an obvious
wish to protract the mystery', and then dealt with so hastily as
to be almost incomprehensible. Like the 'Author of Waverley''s
other novels, the construction was slovenly and the hero uninteresting
in character and inconsistent in behaviour. Despite its poor critical
reception, The Black Dwarf, aided by the success of Old
Mortality, appearedin five independent editions in under
three years.